From introducing inventive game elements into the classroom to
starting mock businesses in an all-virtual marketplace, business
schools are hoping to prepare students for business ownership in
really cool ways.

At Towson University near Baltimore, students can participate in
The Associate, a semester-long program similar to NBC's The
Apprentice with Donald Trump. Eight students work on different
real-life cases each week, learn about things like manufacturing
and innovation, and present their solutions to a Trump-like local
business magnate for review. Only one student remains at the end,
winning a job with the magnate's business. "Students have
said it's been the best educational and networking opportu-nity
[they've had]," notes Laleh Malek, program coordinator and
director of professional experience for the College of Business and
Economics. For more on the program, go to www.towson.edu/cbe/associate.

Incorporating the element of chance is Waverly Deutsch, clinical
assistant professor of entrepreneurship at the University of
Chicago Graduate School of Business. A fan of the game Dungeons
& Dragons, Deutsch likens starting a business to playing
D&D, where the skills and choices of players are tempered with
chance. So she created a game called YourCo., in which students
simulate running a company and present plans for launching the
business, running operations, etc. When students pre-sent, Deutsch
uses a series of calculators she's created to determine the
probability of success. Students then roll a 10-sided die that
tells them of some unexpected event (a sale fell through, for
example) and they must develop a plan of action. "The setting
[feels] real," she says.

In fact, simulating real-life business situations in a virtual
environment is a major trend. At Seton Hall University in South
Orange, New Jersey, assistant professor of entrepreneurship Jay
Azriel has his students use an online simulation to run a virtual
lemonade stand, determining factors like sup-ply costs and product
pricing as well as weather contingency plans. Students then take
what they learn and start real lemonade stands on campus.

Michigan State University professor Michael Lobbestael uses the
virtual business platform Marketplace
Business Simulations, which lets students all over the world
create virtual companies, make business decisions and compete with
other virtual businesses. Lobbestael asks his business students to
run a virtual manufacturing operation. They make two years'
worth of decisions in their semester-long class, then present their
business plans to actual VCs to see if their ideas have legs.
"You can literally spend as much time [working on the virtual
business] as you would a real business," says Lobbestael.

For another virtual business platform, check out the Institute for Virtual
Enterprise at City University of New York in New York City. In
this platform, students can develop companies and buy and sell
products with other student teams worldwide-even take the com-pany
public or borrow money from a virtual bank. Says Jonathan Deutsch,
an IVE fellow, "It gives students a chance to test their
entrepreneurial concept in a closed economy before doing it for
real."

More from Entrepreneur

Brittney's a Certified Financial Planner who can help you manage your business and personal finances and navigate the ups and downs of starting a business.